Pro-Palestinian vandals deface apartment building

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(New York Jewish Week) - Vandals defaced the apartment building of Cas Holloway, Columbia University's chief operating officer, on Thursday, splattering red paint around the entrance to the building and painting inverted red triangles, a Hamas symbol, on its facade. 

The vandals also smashed a glass door, put up threatening posters, and released insects inside the building, according to the New York Post.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul condemned the vandalism, saying the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force was investigating.

"Hateful, antisemitic displays like this will not be tolerated in New York, and the perpetrators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," Hochul said in a post on X. 

Mark Treyger, the head of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, said on X, "This disgusting and despicable act is straight out of the 1930's Nazi playbook."

The incident comes two months after vandals defaced the home of the Jewish director of the Brooklyn Museum in a similar manner, painting a red triangle on her door. A banner they hung also accused her of being a "white supremacist Zionist." The vandalism happened shortly after one of the most active anti-Israel protest groups in the city, Within Our Lifetime, called on its followers to target the museum and its leadership.

Police have made two arrests in the case, including a videographer, Samuel Seligson, who was arrested on Tuesday. He was charged with four felonies, including hate crimes charges.

In addition, at least one Columbia trustee has had their home picketed. 

A group called Palestine Action US has posted videos online recently showing "autonomous activists" vandalizing businesses in New York City. One video showed red paint splattered on the office of Wix, an Israeli tech company; other footage showed vandals pumping Gorilla Glue into the locks of bank doors and tagging a Citibank location with inverted red triangles and graffiti reading "Free Palestine" and "Abolish Israel."

Separately, in a Wednesday Instagram post meant as a response to the turmoil in Bangladesh, the student coalition leading the campus protests, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, said they were "fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization."